Fantasy Football Week 8: Defenses Will Come up Big

By Dan Freeman

John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

Last year, the Chicago Bears set a new standard for what’s possible from a fantasy D/ST. They finished the 2012 season with 226 fantasy points and just to put that in perspective, that’s more than players like Frank Gore, Matt Forte, Jamaal Charles and Victor Cruz had in standard leagues.

We’re seeing the trend continue this season with a number of teams whose D/ST are consistently generating a ton of fantasy points and this week, you can bank on a few of them lighting it up.

The Kansas City Chiefs currently lead the fantasy pack with 125 points, putting them on an incredible pace for over 250 points this season. They’re averaging 5.0 sacks a game and they’ve scored over 15 points in five out of seven games so far, putting up over 20 points in three of them. This week, they’ll take on the Cleveland Browns, who recently benched the inept Brandon Weeden in favor of journeyman Jason Campbell.

They’re also playing at home, and Arrowhead Stadium is notorious for being one of the most difficult places to play. Cleveland is in for a rough afternoon, and the Chiefs’ defense should have plenty of opportunities to make big plays against the disheveled Browns.

The Cincinnati Bengals‘ defense has been up and down this season, but they’ve had much more success at home, where they’ll be playing this week against the New York Jets. Geno Smith has done a better job of protecting the ball lately, but the Bengals’ front seven are relentless and they’re likely to force him into making some mistakes. The odds of over 10 fantasy points for this D/ST are very high.

Last but not least, we have the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night against the St. Louis Rams. The Rams’ offense is a mess now that Sam Bradford is done for the season, and poor backup quarterback Kellen Clemens is in for a beating in front of his home crowd. Richard Sherman and co. are salivating as they get ready for this game. Poor, poor Clemens …

Defenses are usually an afterthought in fantasy drafts, most often picked in the last few rounds. These teams are proving, however, that we might need to reconsider and change that pattern in the future.